Maintaining and searching sets of cells in a wireless communication system

Abstract

For cell measurement, a wireless device categorizes cells whose identities are known to the device into multiple sets. The wireless device may obtain these cells from the system via signaling and/or detect these cells via searches. Different sets of cells may be associated with different levels of importance (e.g., for handoff), require different amounts of processing for measurements, and so on. Each set is associated with a particular measurement rate. Cells deemed to be more important (e.g., for handoff) are measured more frequently. Cells deemed to be less important and/or require more processing for measurements (e.g., cells with unknown timing) are measured less frequently. The wireless device performs searches and makes measurements for the cells in each set at the measurement rate selected for that set.